December 2016 and Christmas 2016

We had a hectic December. We were so so so busy with work that it was hard to find time to do all that I wanted us to.

I got my beautiful tree up a few days after Thanksgiving and we got started on our lights. Jace was working more and so it felt like it took forever, but once we did get them up we were so happy!! Nash especially.

Anytime Nash saw Christmas lights he exclaimed "CHRISTMAS!!!!!!" His enthusiasm helped get us in the spirit.

Lights were a bit slow go-ing at our house since I was the main person doing them and I was working a ton. Nash had been terrified of my parent's halloween and thanksgiving blowups, so we thought we'd let him pick out our blow up and maybe he would love it. Well, he did love it, but he was also terrified of it. Good grief little boy!

My neighbor gifts this year!! I saw all of this soap on sale at Frys and knew this would be something fun and easy to give! I loved it!!

I bought new metallic wrapping paper this year and basically fell in love with my packages.

My house all done on the outside!! Next year we'll have bushes under the windows and a few more lights in the tree, but I think we've nailed it! It was the most lit house on the street!

Our Card this year. I took our family pictures once again and once again i was super stressed out. Maybe we'll have a cute one of us taken randomly during the year where there isnt any stress and use that for next years card!!

Nash has been so fun this Holiday season. I worked REALLY hard with him to say Merry Christmas to everyone as we left somewhere. I made him watch all the fun Christmas movies (grinch, smurfs, Rudolf, alvin and the chipmunks, night before christmas, he-man she-ra christmas, frosty the snowman, and a few others I grew up with, as well as Elf and White Christmas). He never wanted to watch them, but would sit enthralled during the show and then ask to watch them over and over, especially Grinch.

He and I read Christmas books all December and we sang Christmas songs everyday in the car, and in the bath especially. He learned Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman, and Rudolf and sings them everyday.

Speaking of singing, in December, Nash started singing when he woke up which told me he was ready to get out of bed. It was so much nicer than him yelling "momma! rescue me!" Ha!

I finally got him to see Santa. He didnt really care about seeing him....he cared about going on the "roller coaster" (aka the merry go round). :)

We held our Christmas Party (of course I didnt take ANY pictures!) and my house has NEVER been so clean. Not since we moved in. I spent 2 solid weeks decorating and cleaning to get it ready. It was fun to have people over to our home. Other than family, we havent had anyone to our home in almost 2 years of living here!! So crazy.

Out of everyone in my family, we were the only 3 (plus my mom) to not get sick! It was a bummer for everyone and we had to be really careful with Randy, but it was nice to not be sick on Christmas this year.

Christmas Eve and Day were different for us--Jace's family were all up in Flagstaff and so we had lazy days!! IT WAS SO NICE!! There was no stress and no rush. I loved it. We celebrated Melanie's birthday on the 24th and then had our family program--jace and I sung Christmas Hallelujiah again, joe sung oh holy night, we all sang starbright, melanie performed her poem, and the kids sung jingle bells. Then they opened their Christmas eve gifts from gamma and papa and jammies from moms and dads.

Since Christmas was on a Sunday this year, we decided to do our Christmas breakfast for dinner (jeff and melanie had 830 church). So we woke up, opened presents, watched a show, went to church, napped, and then I made fresh squeezed OJ and homemade biscuits! (They came out so good!) Went to mom and dads and had brinner and then opened gifts. Went home happy and tired and grateful for a great Christmas!

Mr and Mrs Santa Claus as we finished putting together Nash's Christmas!

Santa left Nash a tool bench with tools and a Swing car. He basically didnt care about anything else.

Jace's favorite movie apparently. After 7 years he has changed his mind on that multiple times. LOL so I made sure to get the "latest" in his favorite movie lineup.

Lightsaber Chopsticks. I couldnt not.

A leaf blower!! Our yard is always messy because Jace hates sweeping after he mows the lawn! Now he doesnt have to sweep and I have a nice looking yard! Win win!!

Believe me...he was stoked about those cars.

And his own gun! Too bad the trigger is a little hard for his 3 year old fingers to pull.

All day Christmas and everyday since. That boy loves his cars.

I picked out a new flash for my camera--thanks santa ;)

Jace surprised me with my gift. Last year my IPOD got stolen (super sad since it was one my parent gave me in the early 2000s that was engraved! and it had all my favorite music on it) and its been a bummer. He found a refurbished one--and redownloaded all my previous music (most of it anyways-- thank goodness for Itunes and still being on our old computer!!) I was not expecting it!

Always.

He finally put down his other cars and his tools long enough to play on his car. He couldnt figure it out for awhile...but after 2 weeks he started cruising all over the house! He calls it his "Mario Cart".

We have spent alot of time together--Jace had PTO for the last week of December and first week of January and so I took time off work too. We've done alot of playing and resting, watching movies, going to the park, and organizing our house!

We took down our lights and tree today on January 2nd and Nash is completely distraught. He started quoting the grinch who stole christmas to me as I took down the tree!! and when he saw us packing up the blowups and lights he said "why are you taking my christmas!!!???"

Its been a great and busy end to 2016 and we are really excited for 2017 and the plethora of things we hope to happen and accomplish this next year!!

Baby Lucy

Lucy is a very lucky baby. 

Her grandma contacted me and bought a newborn session for her!

Grandma came with mom and Lucy, and we had such a fun time with her sweet pink and cream photo shoot!!

Mommy/Daughter pictures

Cecilia (mom) contacted me wanting to do a mini shoot with her sweet 5 year old daughter.

As an only girl in a family of boys, I always loved when I got to do something special with just my mom. So when a chance comes to do a mommy/daughter shoot, I jump!

We chose to do them at the Mesa Temple. The grounds were so beautiful and green, and bonus! They were setting up their Christmas light displays!!

Conflicted

I'm conflicted.

Right now, I am feeling a major NEED to PURGE.

Seriously, if it were possible, i think I'd sell most of our possessions and start over (with the exception of the paint color in most of the house. we JUST re-did that and I love it).

But I know thats not possible.

The inside of our home doesnt have very much storage space. There is one tiny hall closet that was just for linens that i have been trying to make work for a broom closet (hello, vacuum!) as well as games and linens. All other bedroom closets have been stacked full of important papers, old clothes that dont fit, old items from our pre-marriage days that we havent been able to part with, and nashs closet was chalk full of every item of clothing he has outgrown as well as every piece of baby "stuff" (infant car seat, baby bath tub, bouncer, music table, extra diapers he outgrew, teething toys etc) that we could cram in there.

We have a garage out in our backyard (i know weird!) and there is no access for an actual car. Its a HUGE space (that eventually will become our master bedroom/bathroom/closet--WAY down the road) that would be perfect for storage if there was a space to put things.

So, over Jace's PTO (paid time off) from work, I had him build me shelves for my garage. I drew up what I wanted and he went to work. They are dreamy and now I want more! (I'll post pictures as soon as I can get my garage put back together!)

I started putting things back in the garage that was already in there and realized that we needed to get rid of some stuff, especially because the goal was to clear out some much needed closet space IN the house.

So here comes the purge! I've been throwing away, trying to sell a few things, and have quite the collection to donate amasing. I have not been conflicted about ANYTHING...until I got to nash's closet.

Its no secret that I want more children. I long for the day when my arms are holding more babies and when Nash has siblings to play with. Most of his baby stuff will stay with the hope and goal of using them again in the not too distant (i hope!) future. It was super emotional for me. I cried about his tiny shoes. I had forgotten about his mobile. I found the millions of soothie binkies that I forgot we had. And then...the TOYS. I feel like we have a zillion toys and ONE child! I want to put everything i consider "baby" away....but now that he sees it, he keeps playing with them! I mean, more than his other toys! I know that he will forget about them once they are out of sight for awhile. But I mean, you shouldve seen his face when I bagged up some old toys that I told him were going to another little girl or boy to play with. It was like i took away his most favorite thing in the world!

So. I have been letting him play for the last two days with more toys I found. I've been going back and forth in my head--maybe i could leave them out for him to play with....and then THEY NEED TO GO NOW! Super conflicted. lol

Edited: If anyone is wondering, my purge desire has won out over sentimentality. I stuffed them all in a bag and it will be on its way out to the garage ASAP. :)

Baby Cooper

Sweet Cooper finally came to see me!!

His mom had to keep rescheduling our session because he was NOT being born!! 

He was taking his own time to come, and finally on Halloween, he showed up.

Worth the wait, I'm sure his parents would agree :)

Angela and Weston Engagements

Angela contacted me for a mini session this fall. 

She just said that her boyfriend and she had never had professional pictures done before.

When they arrived, and we talked for a little bit, I found out they were ENGAGED (wedding to be in January 2017), and they were using this as their engagement session!

They were so fun and easy to work with, and I wish them the very best of luck in their new life together!!

**funny story: I went to do ring shots and Angela stopped me. Turns out something happened to her ring and it was getting repaired!! So their engagement session had multiple shots of a fake ring. HA!

JUMPING FOR JOY!

Legit

I seriously can not stop crying.

My hormones are once again all over the place. Thank you PCOS.

I'm on birth control again because I had to get put back on my blood pressure medication. (LONG STORY)

But geez. We took nash to the movie theater for the first time. I saw his wonder and excitement and I started tearing up. The movie Moana had me tearing up with the songs.

I watched undercover boss and sobbed for like 10 minutes at the end.

I had a long day and was expecting Jace home to help with Nash and he didnt tell me he was going to be late. I cried.

I just started sobbing while watching a 30 second video of a little girl getting her first kitty cat.

My head hurts!! My eyes are dry and itchy!!

Dang crying. LOL I legit am losing my mind.